Interacting within an asynchronous online interprofessional education workshop focused on social determinants of health

Curr Pharm Teach Learn. 2024 Mar;16(3):196-201. doi: 10.1016/j.cptl.2023.12.031. Epub 2024 Jan 3.

Abstract

Background: Meaningful interprofessional education (IPE) involves students from at least two professions interacting to learn with, about, and from one another. Our objective was to describe a novel online approach used to create meaningful IPE within a social determinants of health (SDoH) workshop.

Interprofessional education activity: This online workshop integrated four different professions' perspectives on SDoH (social-work, public-health, nursing, and pharmacy). Each six-student interprofessional team was assigned a local neighborhood. This week-long workshop had numerous activities (pre- and post-workshop quizzes, a SDoH-primer video, video self-introduction to teammates, a windshield questionnaire with two subsequent clinical cases, a post-workshop reflection, and post-workshop evaluation). For discussion, asynchronous video-based responses were used instead of traditional text-based discussion-boards.

Discussion: Quantitatively comparing quiz scores, students' SDoH knowledge increased with this workshop. Qualitatively from evaluations, most students found this workshop helpful and meaningful. Supporting use of video-based responses, many students' favorite aspect was interacting and collaborating within their interprofessional teams, although some students desired synchronous activities instead. Faculty facilitators confirmed that meaningful IPE interactions occurred.

Implications: In short, students from multiple health-professions learned SDoH-content and, using video-based responses, interacted asynchronously during this online workshop. This report demonstrated one tool available to help facilitate meaningful IPE asynchronously. This asynchronous, online IPE workshop appears to be a promising format to be integrated with other in-person IPE sessions.

Keywords: Asynchronous; Collaboration; Interaction; Interprofessional education; Video.

MeSH terms

  • Curriculum*
  • Humans
  • Interprofessional Education
  • Interprofessional Relations
  • Social Determinants of Health
  • Students, Health Occupations*
  • Surveys and Questionnaires